Leor was pulled away from the waking world, submerged in a vision of strange and terrible dreamlike images. In the vision, a great serpent roamed the endless abyss between realms, the undisputed king of the darkness. Deep umbrous black scales covered its impossible length, blending into the endless abyss and glistening as they reflected the light of far-away stars. Blazing red eyes the size of lakes cut through the dark, they were sometimes all that could be seen of the serpent's illusive form.
The creature was a natural ruler of its domain. The great serpent was the original predator in the dark, it was the very reason all light-dwelling creatures felt an instinctive fear when night fell over their realms.
The only place the serpent did not dare to go was the great light that rested at the very edge of the endless abyss itself, far beyond the realms of men and Beasts. Yet a subtle agreement formed between the ruler of the dark and the great source of all light, not interfering with each other's domains, they coexisted for many thousands of years.
Then a change began. The first traces of a new evil spread through the hidden places. It was the birth of defilement itself. The great serpent ignored the strange phenomenon, continuing to focus its attention on its own domain.
But the defilement proved far more dangerous than the serpent could have ever imagined. It consumed the minds of powerful men and Beasts alike, transforming them into mindless monsters who sought the destruction of all things.
Before the great serpent recognized the danger, powerful beings like none that had ever existed rose up from within that corrupted embrace.
Time moved forward again. A thousand years passed. Now the serpent was fleeing from a great battle. His inky black scales were raked with gruesome wounds, and the great red eyes had been clawed from his face. Still, the mighty serpent raced through the abyss at impossible speeds, a flood of billowing shadow flowing behind as he was chased by corrupted beings of pure dread.
Leor watched the defiled beings surround the fleeing serpent, striking its ruined body with mind-bending power that made his consciousness tremble merely to witness it.
One of the beings seemed to have no flesh at all, its skeletal form made of nothing but thorn filled red bones, a crown-like growth circling the top of its head. The great red skeleton looked small beside the serpent's body, but it must have been hundreds of meters tall at minimum. Two pools of inky darkness filled its hollow eye sockets, and a twisted grin stretched across the pointed teeth in its mouth.
Another being appeared as a planet-like mass of tentacled arms, thousands upon thousands of slime-covered limbs that seemed to stretch on forever. The limbs consumed everything they touched, devouring and adding to its overgrown form.
Many more defiled powerhouses followed behind those two, mercilessly attacking the serpent from all sides as it tried to flee.
The serpent's abyssal domain had been overrun and claimed by these strange and powerful beings. They could not be reasoned with, and no matter how many the serpent destroyed, more came to take their place. Worse still, the defiled creatures seemed to naturally counter the serpents' greatest strength, his domain over the shadows. There was nowhere to run now; the endless darkness the serpent had called home now belonged to the defiled.
In one last desperate bid for survival, the serpent fled toward the only place the defiled still could not tread. It plunged into the light of creation itself. As it did, it pleaded with the light to allow it entry, even as holy fire began to burn away its flesh. But the light remained silent, ignoring the serpent's plea.
The serpent began to despair. He had only two choices: go back and allow the defiled to consume his flesh, turning his body into another of their corrupted brethren, or allow the holy light to burn away his body.
The proud serpent chose to remain in the light, its flesh and blood slowly turning to ash, to deny its enemies dominion over its flesh at the very least. Eventually, all that was left of the great serpent who had once ruled the abyss were the colossal bones that survived the cleansing fire.
The bones of the serpent fell from the abyss, landing on an undeveloped world at the edge of the Beastly realms.
Leor's vision went black, and the dreamlike images faded. He was left drifting in an endless abyss, with no form of his own. As he floated there, a pair of massive, glowing eyes appeared in the darkness before him, slowly moving closer as they glared in his direction.
"Have you understood the things you saw here, tiny human?" A voice like whispering wind filled Leor's mind as he stared at the glowing red eyes, an instinctive fear rising in him as though he stood before an archetypal predator.
Leor had no mouth, but his thoughts seemed to manifest an answer to the terrible voice.
"I… I think I understand," he managed to reply. "What does this have to do with me and my friends? Why have you trapped us here?"
"Hmph." The sound was like thunder now, the glowing eyes flashing red as the serpent responded. "You are like a child who knows no gratitude. Do you think embodying my flesh is something that can be done so easily? You would have died a long and painful death if you drank that potion of yours outside these dark walls. Even now I guide the process, preventing my power from consuming and destroying you."
If Leor had a mouth, it would be hanging open. The idea that the great serpent was helping him was the last thing he would have guessed.
"I… see," the young man slowly replied. "If what you say is true, then you have my thanks. But I must ask why you would do such a thing, why do you care if I live or die?"
The glowing eyes before him rippled with mysterious power.
"I've given you the answer already." The eyes seemed to stare off into time and space as the serpent continued, "My life and domain were stolen from me by the cursed plague you call the defilement. I want my revenge, but I cannot claim it myself. When you and your friend arrived at this mountain, I knew my opportunity had finally come."
Leor considered the serpent's answer for a moment, a feeling of realization rising inside him.
"Wait! Are you the reason for the attack on Drelk's fortress? Did you command those mutated defiled to come and steal Rynn?" he demanded.
The great serpent's eyes seemed almost to smile at the question.
"If I could command the defiled, would I have perished in such an undignified way? No. I merely nudged the mindless fools in the right direction and briefly blocked out the sun to give them an opportunity. I needed to lure you here, otherwise you would have embodied a lesser Beast, and my revenge would be stolen from me. It must be MY flesh that crushes the corrupted abominations who did this to me!"
As the serpent grew angry, its voice pounded against Leor's mind, a painful ache filling his formless body.
"S-Stop!" he shouted, doing his best to endure the waves of agony.
The pressure slowly faded as the serpent relented, allowing Leor to regain his composure.
"What makes you think I can do something as impossible as taking revenge for you? I don't know if you noticed, but I am trapped in this realm, barely keeping myself alive at the moment."
A long silence filled the darkness as the glowing red eyes lingered on Leor.
"That ability of yours is no simple talent. The fiery Willpower in your body has begun to take on the same characteristics of the light of creation itself. A dwarfed and lesser version, like a seed of a great tree. I would know. I was burned alive in those flames. The sacred light of creation has sent you to this world on purpose, as a gift to me!"
The serpent's voice grew almost crazed as it spoke, staring down at Leor with a hungry gleam in its red eyes.
"No more questions. I will speak to you again when you have grown up enough to be worthy of my presence. Go, use my flesh. Make it your own and grow strong!"
The glowing red eyes of the serpent faded into the abyssal darkness, and Leor was left floating all alone in the void once again. Then he felt air filling his lungs, and the flickering light of Alina's torch returned to his vision.
"You're awake! Thank the light! What happened to you, Leor!? What was that shadow?!"
Leor slowly sat up, pressing against the hard floor to push himself into a seated position. As he did, he saw inky black scales covering his fingers. Raising his hand before his face to examine it, the red glow of his eyes reflected in the glossy darkness of the scales.
Then, as his Willpower circulated through his body for the first time since his transformation, the tenebrous scales began to shimmer as a flood of color spread through them. It looked as if someone had dumped a bucket of white paint onto an inky black surface; the brightness moving like liquid across his body.
The dark scales on his arms and legs were soon turned a magnificent white. As the color spread up his neck and covered the scales on his face, his glowing red eyes flickered and went out. A few seconds later, the glow returned, this time in a majestic golden hue.